There are few facilities for campers to cook outdoors. There are portable gasoline stoves and there are portable ice chests but little choice in a support structure for such accessories. Picnic table are sometimes available for use by people cooking outdoors, but such tables are generally intended for eating instead of cooking and are too low for conveniently cooking and preparing a meal.
Other than the conventional picnic table, the adjustable nursery and camp table shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,833,177 issued Nov. 24, 1931 to Rice is the closest known prior art to the outdoor cooking table of the present invention. Rice shows a table with pivotal end legs notched at their upper ends to releasably support a top work surface at a fixed height and a lower shelf supported on tie rods between the legs and beneath the removable top. The shelf remains with the legs when they are folded for storage, but the top is separable and must be removed from the legs before the legs can be folded. The top is stored separately.